THE CHILD AT SCHOOL

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 253, 22 July 1929, Page 3

THE CHILD AT SCHOOL

EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT. A lecture on “Education as Development” was given recently to members of the Island Bay School and Home Association by Professor W. 11. Gould. He divided his subject into three branches, namely, education as development ; that development was the result of individual activity; and that that act was the outcome of the child s own effort to live his own characteristics in life. He said it was a mistake to consider that the only reason for 'a child’s education was to lit it for an event which was to take place in twenty to twenty-five years, namely, earning power. The child was not at all concerned with what took place at that period, as it was living in the present. He considered that the child should be allowed to develop along natural lines (Without being unduly forced. He condemned the present system of cooping children up at desks all day, which, he said, was the relic of bygone days, having been handed down by the monks of old, who sat in long rows nt desks. The system in our schools, instead of giving the children free play for their yor-g limbs, cramped them. He advocated the abolition of desks, aud the installation of tables and chairs, so that they could be moved aside as desired. The ideal was to he found in the present method adopted in the primary classes, where the child was allowed freedom of action. He gave illustrations of the harm that had been done to children who did not have free play. Cases, he said, had come under his own personal supervision. People might consider his remarks revolutionary, but he had the backing of some of the leading educationists in England, America, and the Continent. A vote of thanks to the speaker for his interesting and instructive address was carried with acclamation,. The ladies dispensed supper at the close of the meeting.